Characteristics of power outages from compound weather extremes in Florida

The growing number of extreme weather events has contributed to an increasing number and severity of power outages. However, the complex interplay of extreme weather events and their compounding effects on power outage characteristics (e.g. event duration) has not been comprehensively explored. Powe...

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Main Authors: Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman, Thomas Wahl, Meghana Nagaraj, Alejandra R Enríquez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:Environmental Research: Climate
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/adf252
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author Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman
Thomas Wahl
Meghana Nagaraj
Alejandra R Enríquez
author_facet Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman
Thomas Wahl
Meghana Nagaraj
Alejandra R Enríquez
author_sort Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman
collection DOAJ
description The growing number of extreme weather events has contributed to an increasing number and severity of power outages. However, the complex interplay of extreme weather events and their compounding effects on power outage characteristics (e.g. event duration) has not been comprehensively explored. Power outage data is often not publicly available, especially at high spatial resolution. Identifying outages related to weather events can also be challenging, as various weather variables can trigger or modulate power outages when they occur, in isolation or combined. Here, we use county-level power outage data from EAGLE-I for the state of Florida from 2015 to 2022 to identify moderate and major weather-related outages and analyze their characteristics. We show that total outage counts were higher in metro areas than in non-metro areas. However, the percentage of weather-related power outages was higher in non-metro areas than in metro areas. The spatial variation of grid reliability indicators derived from all weather-related events follows similar patterns as derived when just focusing on tropical cyclone events, highlighting the importance of these types of extremes in creating prolonged outages. Considering six relevant weather variables, we identify univariate and compound events (i.e. when more than one weather variable was extreme at the time of the outage). Univariate events have a relatively homogenous pattern across the state of Florida, while compound events have more localized hotspots. The average duration of the outages also increases when moving from univariate to multivariate events. Our results shed light on the relative importance of different weather variables (in isolation or combination) in creating power outages with different characteristics across Florida. Identifying such relationships is an important step toward understanding how power outage frequency and/or severity may change when certain extreme weather events become more frequent and/or intense.
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spelling doaj-art-8fc80d8d6c224d7f94bf9577bf69fb722025-08-20T03:58:17ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research: Climate2752-52952025-01-014303500810.1088/2752-5295/adf252Characteristics of power outages from compound weather extremes in FloridaMohammad Siddiqur Rahman0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0638-9083Thomas Wahl1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3643-5463Meghana Nagaraj2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0126-123XAlejandra R Enríquez3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7836-6748Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering, University of Central Florida , Orlando, FL, United States of America; National Center for Integrated Coastal Research , University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States of AmericaDepartment of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering, University of Central Florida , Orlando, FL, United States of America; National Center for Integrated Coastal Research , University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States of AmericaDepartment of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering, University of Central Florida , Orlando, FL, United States of America; National Center for Integrated Coastal Research , University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States of AmericaSchool of Geosciences , College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida, St Petersburg, FL 33701, United States of AmericaThe growing number of extreme weather events has contributed to an increasing number and severity of power outages. However, the complex interplay of extreme weather events and their compounding effects on power outage characteristics (e.g. event duration) has not been comprehensively explored. Power outage data is often not publicly available, especially at high spatial resolution. Identifying outages related to weather events can also be challenging, as various weather variables can trigger or modulate power outages when they occur, in isolation or combined. Here, we use county-level power outage data from EAGLE-I for the state of Florida from 2015 to 2022 to identify moderate and major weather-related outages and analyze their characteristics. We show that total outage counts were higher in metro areas than in non-metro areas. However, the percentage of weather-related power outages was higher in non-metro areas than in metro areas. The spatial variation of grid reliability indicators derived from all weather-related events follows similar patterns as derived when just focusing on tropical cyclone events, highlighting the importance of these types of extremes in creating prolonged outages. Considering six relevant weather variables, we identify univariate and compound events (i.e. when more than one weather variable was extreme at the time of the outage). Univariate events have a relatively homogenous pattern across the state of Florida, while compound events have more localized hotspots. The average duration of the outages also increases when moving from univariate to multivariate events. Our results shed light on the relative importance of different weather variables (in isolation or combination) in creating power outages with different characteristics across Florida. Identifying such relationships is an important step toward understanding how power outage frequency and/or severity may change when certain extreme weather events become more frequent and/or intense.https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/adf252extreme weatherpower outagegrid reliabilitycompound eventsEAGLE-IFlorida
spellingShingle Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman
Thomas Wahl
Meghana Nagaraj
Alejandra R Enríquez
Characteristics of power outages from compound weather extremes in Florida
Environmental Research: Climate
extreme weather
power outage
grid reliability
compound events
EAGLE-I
Florida
title Characteristics of power outages from compound weather extremes in Florida
title_full Characteristics of power outages from compound weather extremes in Florida
title_fullStr Characteristics of power outages from compound weather extremes in Florida
title_full_unstemmed Characteristics of power outages from compound weather extremes in Florida
title_short Characteristics of power outages from compound weather extremes in Florida
title_sort characteristics of power outages from compound weather extremes in florida
topic extreme weather
power outage
grid reliability
compound events
EAGLE-I
Florida
url https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/adf252
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